Thomas Chatterton quotes

Thomas Chatterton was an English poet and early Romantic figure, best known for his literary forgeries in medieval style. His work fascinated and inspired later poets with its imaginative depth and tragic story. He became a symbol of misunderstood genius and youthful creativity. Here are 14 of his quotes:

The gatherd storme is rype; the bigge drops falle; The forswat meadowes smethe, and drenche the raine; The comyng ghastness do the cattle pall, And the full flockes are drivynge ore the plaine; Dashde from the cloudes the waters flott againe; The welkin opes; the yellow levynne flies; And the hot fierie smothe in the wide lowings dies. (Thomas Chatterton)
Almighty Framer of the Skies! O let our pure devotion rise, Like Incense in thy Sight! Wrapt in impenetrable Shade, The Texture of our Souls were made, Till thy Command gave Light. View quote
Thomas Chatterton
Happy (if mortals can be) is the man, Who, not by priest but Reason, rules his span: Reason, to its possessor a sure guide, Reason, a thorn in Revelation's side. View quote
Thomas Chatterton
How shall we celebrate the day, When God appeared in mortal clay, The mark of worldly scorn; When the Archangel's heavenly Lays, Attempted the Redeemer's Praise, And hail'd Salvation's Morn! View quote
Thomas Chatterton
Haste to thie kiste, thie onlie dortoure bedde. Cale, as the claie whiche will gre on thie hedde, Is Charitie and Love aminge highe elves; Knightis and Barons live for pleasure and themselves. View quote
Thomas Chatterton
O Chatterton! that thou wert yet alive! Sure thou would'st spread the canvass to the gale, And love, with us, the tinkling team to drive O'er peaceful Freedom's undivided dale; And we, at sober eve, would round thee throng, Hanging, enraptur'd, on thy stately song! And greet with smiles the young-eyed Poesy All deftly mask'd, as hoar Antiquity. View quote
Thomas Chatterton
Here take this silver, it maie eathe thie care; We are Goddes stewards all, nete of oure owne we bare. View quote
Thomas Chatterton
The finest of the Rowley poems – Eclogues, Ballad of Charity &c rank absolutely with the finest poetry in the language...He was an absolute and untarnished hero. View quote
Thomas Chatterton
Mie love ys dedde, Gon to hys death-bedde, Al under the wyllowe tree. Waterre wytches, crownede wythe reytes, Bere mee to yer leathalle tyde. I die; I comme; mie true love waytes. Thos the damselle spake, and dyed. View quote
Thomas Chatterton
Chatterton, the marvellous boy, The sleepless soul that perished in his pride. View quote
Thomas Chatterton
He was an instance that a complete genius and a complete rogue can be formed before a man is of age. (Thomas Chatterton)
Liste! now the thunder's rattling clymmynge sound Cheves slowlie on, and then embollen clangs, Shakes the hie spyre, and losst, dispended, drown'd, Still on the gallard eare of terroure hanges; The windes are up; the lofty elmen swanges; Again the levynne and the thunder poures, And the full cloudes are braste attenes in stonen showers. View quote
Thomas Chatterton
I cannot find in Chatterton's works any thing so extraordinary as the age at which they were written. They have a facility, vigour, and knowledge, which were prodigious in a boy of sixteen, but which would not have been so in a boy of twenty. He did not show extraordinary powers of genius, but extraordinary precocity. Nor do I believe he would have written better, had he lived. He knew this himself, or he would have lived. Great geniuses, like great kings, have too much to think of to kill themselves. View quote
Thomas Chatterton
This is the most extraordinary young man that has encountered my knowledge. It is wonderful how the whelp has written such things. View quote
Thomas Chatterton